Building Community
Creating Places
Using Commmon Sense
Program Areas
Major Initiatives
Special Features
PPS Favorites
- What If We Built Our Cities Around Places?
- Great Waterfronts of the World
- Pride of Place
Governing Magazine - Placemaker Profile: Allan Jacobs
How-To's, Features & More
- Cities of Joy
- Austin ParksFest: Variety is the Key
Who says country music and triathlons don't go together? This "new Austin tradition" proves otherwise.
- Tool Library Makes It Easier to Volunteer in Parks
Using a grant from Home Depot, the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy has created an innovative program to help the public participate directly in park improvements.
- Cultivating Your Garden
Lois Weisberg, Commissioner of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs, discusses the importance of having something going on - having something to celebrate - in urban parks, streets, and other public spaces.
- Celebrating 25 Years of Bringing the
Arts to The People
The Providence Parks Department Office of Cultural Affairs is tiny - headed up by two people and mainly staffed by volunteers - but its role in revitalizing the city has been huge.
- Lessons from 25 Years of OCA
Parks directors, artists, politicians, developers, and others reflect on the broad and lasting accomplishments of Providence's Office of Cultural Affairs.
- Planning Events
More than a dozen different guides covering all the ins and outs of events, from New York City's Partnership for Parks. Some of the information is thus New York-specific, but in general, these tipsheets tell you everything you need to know.
- Cooking With Fire In Public Space
Four excerpts from Jutta Mason's book on how campfires and a communcal bake-oven dramatically changed a Toronto park.
- What Role Can Programming Play in Creating Safer Parks?
Diverse activities and groups of users go a long way toward enhancing perceptions of security in a park. From Toronto Parks & Recreation's Planning, Designing and Maintaining Safer Parks.
- Organizing and Programming Across Cultural Boundaries
Twenty strategies used by Friends of Meridian Hill, a parks group in a diverse Washington D.C. neighborhood. Submitted by the Friends' President, Steve Coleman.
- NRPA's Urban Youth Initiative
Unique programs that employ both traditional activities and technological advances to capture the imaginations of young people.
- Creating Playspaces by and for Children
Children can and should participate in creating and transforming their play spaces; a presentation by Roger Hart, Children's Environments Research Group.
- Youth Programs Database
A growing database of success stories on youth-at-risk programs, from Canada's Leisure Information Network. Full reviews of partnerships involved, nature of the program, etc.
- Urban Conservation Corps
New York City's Parks Council uses Americorps volunteers in parks.
- Public-Private Partnership Increases and Diversifies Use
A public-private partnership reversed a decade of neglect in Hartford's central park through successful capital projects, diverse programs and effective fundraising.
- WaterFire Art Installation Lights Up Downtown Providence
The story behind an award-winning fire-and-music installation by artist Barnaby Evans, which has had an impressive cultural and economic impact on downtown Providence.
- Inappropriate Activities
Discourage "undesirable" situations in your park by evaluating and changing the physical conditions that support those situations. From Toronto Parks & Recreation's Planning, Designing and Maintaining Safer Parks
- Jack-O-Launch
In the Denver Urban Gardens Pumpkin Launching Competition, 15 teams build catapult devises to fling pumpkins. Learn about this unusual event and organization.
- Fundays In Houston's Parks
Parks and Recreation Director William Smith tells about the development of "Funday" events to draw kids and families to neighborhood parks throughout Houston.
- Teen Centers
A study of teen centers across the United States and Canada by Dr. Peter Witt of Texas A&M University.
- The Manhattan New Music Project's Site Specific Music Program
An ambitious, borough-wide series of live outdoor performances (scroll down the left side of the page for the "Site Specific Program" links).
- Parks as Centers of Community Activity
- Holiday Lights Cast Spotlight on Houston's Hermann Park
Houston's Holiday Lights in Hermann Park festival is a primer in how to use the winter season to your advantage.
- Barton Springs and Creek: A Case Study
A case study about the successful efforts of a coalition of groups to preserve the "Soul of Austin" - Barton Springs - and its watershed.
